Shore Leave: Geartopia [Open to All]

[meat_mooks]

||Attention all crewmen, shore leave is now in progress, attention crewmen, shore leave is now in progress...||

Stacy's voiced called the entire crew, until all of them were gathered at the Obs Deck. Then, a dossier appeared on the screens, along with the image of a rotating planet.

Planet Designation: Geartopia
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-

Comments

[hi_there_aliens]

No, it was a perfectly reasonable question. This archaeologist was dead on his feet and he wanted to sleep. He reviewed his questions over just to make sure they made sense. Yeah. They seemed about right. Now he wanted to know why she was breaking into his room. Or why she was taking him so literally.

Vala stared up at him, eyes raking over him and her smile grew, wider and wider, and then surpassing the Cheshire Cat's. Almost like she's laughing at a private joke, his sleep starved brain supplied. The butt end of the joke was probably him. Daniel had to resist the urge to go find a mirror. Was there something wrong with him? Something stuck in his teeth? Did he have their version of hay stuck in his hair? He returned the gaze a lot less admiringly and a lot more dumbly. Seriously, what was she staring at? He went from foot to foot. It finally occurred to him a few seconds too late that he was half naked. It occurred to him another second later that his pants were barely hanging on and she was kneeling in front of him.

"Okay, how about we get you up off the floor," Daniel quickly bent, grabbing her by the upper arms and hauling her up. "Better right?" Yeah, better, she wasn't practically crotch level. "Let's try again. Did you need something?"

He regretted it the moment he said it. Daniel asked mostly out of politeness' sake, but every part of him that wanted to crash hoped she didn't take him up on the offer.

[valaunbound]

Good luck getting any straight answers out of her Daniel, she's good at avoiding them at the best of times, but add way too much cactus beer to the mix (which by the way is probably the single most lethal alcoholic drink she's ever had the pleasure of partaking in) and he'll be lucky if she even follows the conversation.

"Good plan!" She agreed with a pointed finger as he helped her to her feet, that smile still fixed in place as if her emotions were time delayed or she'd just forgotten to remove it. Once up she teetered for a moment, getting her balance again with the help of his shoulder.

"Yes I need something," she nodded solemnly trying not to let his naked chest distract her which her hand was dangerously close to, "give me a moment and I'll remember what the something is. But it was definitely important."

[hi_there_aliens]

Vala graduated from starring at his feet to starring at his chest. Maybe if he waited a half hour, she might finally get to his face. Daniel didn't think he wanted to wait that long. He wanted to go to sleep. He tried to lift an arm from her, but from the way she swayed,maybe it wasn't the best idea. He'd have to put up with her hanging off his shoulder for a little until she got her balance back.

So she did need something. Daniel waited. And waited. And waited-oh geez, was her hand feeling his biceps up? He looked at her hand suspiciously, just to make sure. She still didn't say anything. If it was so important, you'd think she'd remember it. Then he sniffed. Whatever she drank smelled strange, kind of sweet, but very strong, like sniffing Chinese yellow mustard, and it went straight up his nose, stinging. His eyes started to water.

This was ridiculous. He was exhausted here. He didn't want another allergy attack and he didn't want to spend all night standing here. His legs were killing him.

"This's been nice and all but I'm tired. I'd really like to sleep, so can you ask in the morning?" Daniel said impatiently. He added, with the subtlety of a sledge hammer. "I'd be 'happy' to walk you back to your room"

[valaunbound]

"Room! That was it!" Vala blurted out, reluctantly knocked from her pleasant reverie abruptly. She'd forgotten she was supposed to be even remembering anything. He really did have a lovely chest, and lovely arms and lovely shoulders and well lovely everything really. Vala hadn't been imagining what it would be like to kiss it or trail her fingers over it or even just snuggle up to it. Absolutely not.

"I don't think I have one, that's the problem." She pouted at him looking as sad as she could manage, but it probably came across as more just plastered. She removed her own arm from his shoulder and on realising her balance really was compromised, she promptly sat on the end of the bed... and then lay back on it. "So I didn't think you'd mind sharing." Her head hit the pillow just as she finished the sentence.

Oh now that was comfy, it was that moment when you really didn't realise quite how much you needed bed and Vala's eyes shut.

[hi_there_aliens]

She was buzzed and/or drunk, Daniel himself was too brain dead to follow the conversation. She was practically memorizing every inch of his shoulders with her eyes and it was kind of distracting. That on top of his tickling sensation up his nose wasn't doing him any favors. All in all, he wasn't in the frame of mind to follow her "Ah-Ha! Room!" moment. All she got was a blank look.

"Yes you do. I saw it on the register." Not that he looked or anything. She stepped away from him then. Vala managed to get control of her balance, surprisingly not going to he ground again, long enough to completely take over the bed. His bed. The one he was desperately wanted to sleep in! Daniel gaped at her. At the bed that was occupied. At the way she took up the entire thing. For being smaller than he was, she seemed to take up a lot of space.

Oh no. No way. This was insane. She had options. There was any other room if she wanted to lock pick them, there was her own room, there was Stacy!

Daniel shook her roughly awake before she could pass out. "No, you don't. Wake up." Don't make him push you off, just so he can at least get some of it back.

[valaunbound]

There was no way she was moving now, she was far too comfy and sleep was imminent. Just the thought of having to stand up again made her feel bilious. She was down and she was staying down, unless you actually want her to puke on you Daniel. Daniel got barely more than an exasperated "Don't shake me," and an uncomfortable grimace at the jerky movement as she shunted up to one edge of the bed and lay on her side instead. She patted the space behind her invitingly and then pulled the gun out of the back of her pants and held it out to him in a silent gesture of 'take this'.

"There's plenty of room." And then she shifted her head a little, cosying it into the pillow. Sleep now please.

[hi_there_aliens]

She moved over, which wasn't exactly what Daniel was trying to go for. The only good thing so far was she wasn't taking up over ninety percent of the bed. Now she was taking seventy. How thoughtful. It didn't fail to impress upon him repeatedly that this was his bed, his room, and he was effectively being locked out of both. Daniel took the gun, as if she'd handed him dirty laundry to put away for her. Great. Now he was a servant.

Daniel set the gun down on the night table, away from his glasses, and looked down at her. What the hell did he do now? Share the bed, yeah right.

He could risk moving her, have him throw up on him. Something he'd prefer to avoid. He could get security, or get someone to help her to her room, both of which would involving walking down stairs, searching for help, coming back up. Even if he wasn't exhausted beyond all reason, his arms and legs already set their feet down. No, they were tired, so either do something for them or they quit. Or he could just take the last parcel of free land here and lie down.

What did he do to deserve this? If he wasn't so beat, he'd have taken the other options, but as it was, he was just going to have to tolerate it.

They were just sharing a bed. She better not get any ideas. Daniel reluctantly lay down on the open space, back to her. Ow. Every single limb protested. It was going to hurt worse in the morning once his muscles repaired themselves, and he had the anthropologist part of him to blame for it. He'd wanted to work alongside the locals, learn their methods. And he had! But now his body was killing him for it.

He tried to relax with a sigh.

[valaunbound]

If Vala had been more compos mentis and not so 'why is the bed moving underneath me' she may have lamented the fact she was lying in a bed with a semi dressed Daniel and there was nothing even remotely sexual going on.

As it was, she was just glad he was there. It felt 'nice'. It wasn't a feeling she'd had much experience of or would even admit she needed, but it was oddly comforting. Vala smiled to herself contentedly in her semi-conscious state not really sure if it was him or the comfiest bed she'd had in weeks that was making her smile, she just knew she'd never felt so relaxed and able to let go.

[hi_there_aliens]

The bed really was that comfortable. Daniel sank in, limbs relaxing. The temperature was just perfect, not too hot or cold. No weird throbbing sensation of the air around them from Stacy's innards, the one that even if you generally got used to it, it was always there. He could get used to this. He wouldn't have minded a faint breeze or nothing but clear night sky over head. This was great though. There was just one slight problem.

Now that Daniel was finally horizontal, he found that now his brain was working over time. No matter how tired he was, his mind was racing. So much for being able to pass out the moment he hit the pillow.

If he couldn't sleep, neither could Vala. And since she was here, buzzed and sleepy, it sounded like the perfect time to get down to business and start asking the questions he couldn't before, while her guard was down. Maybe a little underhanded (read: a lot), but Daniel wasn't feeling particularly guilty about it. It served her right for breaking into his room and stealing his bed.

"Vala...?" He murmured. "Back in the lab, you were saying something about the year you know me from...did I ever say why I was still there?"

[valaunbound]

"Hmm?" Vala mumbled, frowning to get her head round the question. Well not so much the question, just to translate the words into something comprehensible. Was he really asking her questions now? Couldn't it wait til the morning, Daniel? He knew she was drunk, right? How much sense did drunk people make? Granted she was probably more in control of her faculties than most and if push came to shove she'd probably even manage to be able to spring out of bed in a crisis and cope, but him asking serious questions was way beyond her abilities right now.

"Mostly because you kept missing out on Atlantis." Vala yawned and hoped that answered him sufficiently and he'd shut up now. She took the elastics out of her hair that were holding it in the pigtails and dropped them carelessly to the floor by the bed. That was better, they weren't pulling anymore.

[hi_there_aliens]

"Atlantis exists?" Daniel brightened, in that same way a kid might if they found out Santa Claus was actually real all along. No wonder! Of course he'd try to go. Atlantis, the Lost Continent.

Wait, get back on track. While the exploration aspects of the Stargate were immense, important, and easily the best part of the job, the constant danger and getting shot at or injured wasn't. The only reason he'd pushed to join the team in the first place was because of Skaara and Sha're. Sometimes, when he lay trying to sleep back on Earth, Daniel tried to imagine what he'd do if he ever succeeded. He didn't stay on the topic long. It was too hard to. It drifted too closely to a more realistic, what if they don't. Daniel believed Jack when he said they'd get them back, but it had been so long already. Each day, each new planet without news or signs of where they might be, brought on a colder trail.

Daniel half rolled over, neck craned to look at Vala. "You're saying the only reason I stayed at the SGC was because of missing a trip." ...Only a trip to Atlantis. What did that say about everything else. Was there nothing keeping him there? "What about Jack? Teal'c? Sam?"

He bit back the question before it followed, 'what about Sha're and Skaara?'. The topic of his wife had slipped out in front of Eva and only because she'd stumbled on it herself. Daniel would've preferred she never found out. It wasn't something he even willingly shared with the other SG teams. It felt too private, too personal. He wasn't ready to tell her that part of him. Maybe she supposedly knew him in the future, but he didn't know her. He trusted her enough (or he was exhausted enough not to care) to fall asleep in the same bed, which made him vulnerable, but not enough to spill his guts. Talk about skewed priorities.

Daniel could dig around some instead, read between the lines.

[valaunbound]

Vala sighed, this was hardly the right time and he was buzzing in her ear like a fly that wouldn't go away. She considered just ignoring him, pretend she was already flat out and maybe he'd just give up, but the bigger part of her knew it was only fair to answer his questions, even if she wasn't up to her usual standards of elaboration. She'd want to know her future if she was in the same position, and she'd probably be far more annoying about it, she considered. She doubted she'd have been able to wait this long before she started to press.

"Yes, they're all still there," Vala sighed, not hiding the fact that answering was a trial despite her feeling she owed him this. "Muscles, Samantha, Jack's moved on but he still comes by from time to time. Daniel, I really need to sleep, can't this wait?" She held her hand to her forehead, somehow hoping that would stop the spinning and him.

[hi_there_aliens]

"You only stole my bed. So no, it can't," Daniel rolled over onto his back, looking at the line of her spine, which, if he judged it right, indicated she was very much not asleep. And if she started to, he was just going to shake her away until he got some answers. No passing out on his watch, he wasn't done pestering you. He was perfectly ready to go to sleep earlier. Vala ruined that, so the least she could do is talk a little.

Daniel fell silent for a minute, long enough to lull her into a false sense of security. It felt like someone had shaken the floor out from under him. "Jack moved on? He quit just like that?" But Jack said he'd get Sha're and Skaara back. Jack might be a lot of things, annoying, hard-assed, shoot first, don't bother with questions later, but when he said they'd find them, Daniel could trust him. Maybe, Daniel thought tentatively, that meant that where Vala came from, they'd been saved. No mention of his wife coming with him, but maybe she'd joined the program or something. Or settled on Earth. Daniel couldn't see himself leaving on a joy trip anywhere, even to Atlantis if they weren't saved. "What happened?"

Then again, he remembered with a trace of shame, he'd been ready to drop everything when he'd seen Heliopolis, and even to this day, some of him still felt like he should've stayed.

[valaunbound]

He had a point but it didn't make it any less irritating. There was a reason she stole your bed Daniel, a very good one. One that was insisting she slept.

"Fine," Vala groaned concedingly, contemplating hiding her head underneath the pillow and drowning him out. But then he went quiet and she found herself opening her eyes and trying to look over her shoulder without actually moving. Was he done? He'd gone very quiet. Oh thank god for that. She settled back down again flipping onto her front with a humph and buried her face into the pillow, letting the mass of black hair serve as a cover - a cover that he wouldn't be able to see her making faces at him underneath if he did persist.

Maybe she shouldn't have had that thought process, because as soon as she thought it he piped up again. "Nothing happened, he's just a General now, spends most of his time in Washington."

[hi_there_aliens]

With a stolen bed comes consequences and a disgruntled archaeologist is one of them. Maybe this will be a lesson to go back to your own room instead of sneaking into his.

"Jack. A general," Daniel couldn't help sounding extremely skeptical. It wasn't that Jack didn't make a good Colonel. Not that he had much experience with other Colonels in general, other than Makepeace, but he thought Jack did a good job most of the time, if a bit unorthodox in how he acted. But General... when Daniel thought of a General, he instantly thought of Hammond or West, one strict but fatherly once you got behind the hard ass exterior, intelligent and keen, the other, completely humorless, dull and short sighted, only able to see the immediate threat in a wonderful piece of technology rather than the big picture.

Thank God for Hammond.

But Jack was not someone Daniel thought of as a general. Actually, the thought of him commanding an entire base, having that much power, was a little bit scary. What was his first order of business? Mandatory Simpsons showings in the cafeteria, nothing else allowed, the entire base required to attend. Daniel tried to imagine Jack sitting at a desk. He couldn't do it. Jack would never be happy anywhere but the field.

"I can't believe he accepted the job." Daniel said to the ceiling. The ceiling didn't have much to say when it came to setting things straight. At least he hadn't been killed on a mission. Or wouldn't be. This looked promising though. Jack didn't get discharged and he'd taken a promotion. He'd only do that if they'd found their two missing. It came unbidden to his mouth, a tiny little smile in the darkness.

[valaunbound]

Whilst Daniel's thought processes were long and convoluted, Vala's weren't. Her's consisted of nothing more than 'there were no direct questions there, nothing I need to answer. Thank the gods of archaeology for that!' and that made her smile too, probably at the same moment he did but for very different reasons. Part of her smile could also be attributed to his less than convinced reply regarding Jack, he didn't strike her as the general type either and Daniel's reaction amused her, enough to get a small snort of a laugh.

Still, she could rest now. Question time was over. Maybe in the morning she might realise what he was getting at, but for now she passed it off as nothing more than curiosity. Annoying curiosity that she'd be happy to discuss at length in the morning!